#Oscar Pistorius, Perceptions and and Instinct

The other night – or rather in the early hours of the morning – I heard someone at our door. We have had quite a few break-ins in our area of late and my first perception was that we had an unwanted visitor.

My brother and I share a home and my first instinct was not to press the panic button, but first to check whether he was perhaps unlocking the door. I padded through the dark house and, sure enough, there he was. The dog had decided it wanted to go out at that unearthly hour.

I am not commenting on Oscar’s actions, but can’t help wondering why he didn’t check first to see if Reeva was still in bed.

The point I am making is that we need to check our perceptions first – before we act on our instincts. That Oscar didn’t do that is having serious consequences if this was a tragic accidental shooting.

Are you SURE that person in your office is arrogant, a waste of human skin and unfriendly? Are you certain your spouse, friend, companion is deliberately going out of their way to annoy you? Are you absolutely convinced that Youth Leader has had a private chat with your kids because he wants to cause division in your family and this is not his attempt at bringing harmony to a tense situation?

There was a case like this in the Bible when the Israelites almost went to war against some of their fellows because they “heard someone say” something about a situation which gave them a wrong perception. It was a good thing they didn’t follow their instincts and checked first because things were not what they had perceived them to be. Read the story in Joshua chapter 22 in the Old Testament.

I wrote a super 31-day devotional about a man whose perceptions God changed radically, which brought him peace of mind and heart. It’s called “Life’s Fat Cats” and is available in the Amazon Kindle store.

2 thoughts on “#Oscar Pistorius, Perceptions and and Instinct”

Thank you for sharing this. I have a tendency to be oversensitive at times and it causes a lot of problems. Then, the more I try to fix it, the worse I seem to make it. But asking oneself, ‘Are you SURE about…’ – is a good thing to do. Thank you Val.